The present invention relates to body implantable devices, and more particularly to prostheses including stents and grafts intended for long term or permanent intraluminal fixation.
A variety of patient treatment and diagnostic procedures involve the use of devices inserted into the body of a patient and intraluminally implanted. Among these devices are prostheses as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,771 (Wallsten). These devices are flexible, tubular, braided structures formed of helically wound thread elements. A delivery catheter includes gripping members for securing a prosthesis to the catheter. In deployment, the gripping members and catheter are removed, allowing the prosthesis to assume a substantially cylindrical shape as it radially expands and substantially conforms to a blood vessel wall or other tissue.
Metallic thread elements or strands are generally favored for applications requiring flexibility and effective resistance to radial compression after implantation. Metallic strands can be thermally formed by a moderately high temperature age-hardening process while wound about a mandrel in the desired helical configuration. The strands cooperate to provide the requisite strength, due to their high modulus of elasticity.
The flexibility of the strands also is important, as it permits a radial compression of the stent (by an axial elongation) that facilitates delivery of the stent through narrow blood vessels or other lumens toward the intended treatment site. Because the self-expanding device generally remains at least slightly radially compressed after fixation, its restoring force can provide acute fixation. The flexible stent can accommodate a wider range of lumen diameters, reducing the need to precisely match the""stent and lumen as to size. The favorable combination of strength and flexibility is due to the properties of the strands themselves, and the arrangement of strands, i.e. the axial spacing between adjacent helical strands, the braiding angles of the strands, etc. Accordingly, stents characteristically have an open mesh construction as shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b. 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,110 (Wiktor) discloses a flexible tubular liner, insertable into the aorta to treat an aneurisym. The liner is a tight weave of flexible plastic strands, designed to self-expand against the aneurisym to direct blood flow past the aneurisym. In this context, a tight weave is intended to minimize leakage, so that the liner can effectively shunt blood through to eliminate the aneurysmal sack from the blood path.
Those of skill in the art have generally encountered difficulty in providing a device that simultaneously accommodates the competing needs of low permeability, and strength and flexibility for considerable radial compression and expansion.
One known approach to counter this problem is a combination stent/graft, in which a compliant but substantially fixed-radius and tightly-woven graft is sutured or otherwise coupled to a radially expandable stent. The stent upon release is intended to radially expand to the graft diameter. This, however, generally requires a careful matching of the graft diameter with the lumen diameter at the treatment site. Otherwise, either an oversized graft is compressed between the stent and body tissue with undesirable folds or gathering of the graft material, or an undersized graft prevents the stent from expanding sufficiently to anchor the device.
Several prosthesis constructions have been suggested, particularly involving three dimensional braiding as disclosed in International Patent Publications No. WO91/10766. For example, see International Patent Publication No. WO92/16166, No. WO94/06372, and No. WO94/06373. These publications discuss composite grafts or other braided structures that combine different types of strands, e.g. multifilament yarns, monofilaments, fusible materials, and collagens. In all of these disclosures, the woven or braided structure is heat set after braiding to impart the desired nominal shape to the device. Accordingly, all strands and filaments must be compatible with the heat set conditions (primarily the high temperature), limiting the type of materials that can be interbraided into the device.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a prosthesis including structural strands and other strands interbraided with the structural strands, in which the types of materials for such other strands are not limited by conditions necessary to thermally set or otherwise selectively shape the structural strands.
Another object is to provide a process for making a prosthesis, in which a certain portion of the strands ultimately incorporated into the prosthesis, e.g. structural strands, can be treated to assume predetermined nominal shapes without any undesirable impact on the other strands incorporated into the structure.
A further object is to provide, in a prosthesis manufacturing process involving the interbraiding of multiple strands, a means for selectively cold-working a portion of the strands to predetermine a nominal shape of the interbraided structure.
Yet another object is to provide an interbraided device incorporating the strength, resilience and range of diameters associated with stents, and the low permeability associated with grafts.
To achieve these and other objects, there is provided a process for making a prosthesis, including the following steps:
a. providing a plurality of structural strands formed of structural material and having an original nominal shape, and providing a plurality of compliant textile strands;
b. altering the structural strands to impart to each of the structural strands a selected nominal shape in lieu of the original nominal shape; and
c. after altering, braiding the strands into an integrated structure of the structural strands and the textile strands.
Preferably the braiding forms a latticework of the structural strands. Then, the textile strands are formed as a textile sheeting that is supported by the latticework and occupies interstices between adjacent structural strands of the latticework.
A salient feature of the process is that the structural strands are selectively shaped, i.e. given their predetermined second nominal shapes, prior to the interbraiding step. Consequently, process conditions for selective shaping have virtually no impact on the textile strands. This is particularly beneficial when the structural strands are metallic, e.g. formed of Elgiloy or another cobalt-based alloy, certain stainless steels, or a recovery metal such as Nitinol nickel-titanium alloy. These metals provide the desired strength and resiliency, yet when thermally shaped require temperatures far above the melting points typical of the multifilament yarns suitable for the textile strands. In certain cases, significant damage can occur below (although near) the melting point. Certain polymers suitable for the structural strands likewise are advantageously shaped at temperatures unsuitably high for the textile strands. In either event, thermally setting or shaping the structural strands prior to interbraiding prevents this kind of damage to the textile strands.
In accordance with the present invention, structural strands may be selectively shaped by cold working as well. Certain resilient and ductile metals are particularly well suited to cold working. A primary advantage is the ability to incorporate the cold-working step and the braiding step into a continuous operation. In particular, each structural strand on its way to a braiding station can be wrapped about a shaping pulley under sufficient tension to achieve the needed plastic deformation. Continuous shaping and braiding can substantially reduce manufacturing cost.
The structural strands can be formed into a variety of shapes, most preferably helical. The helices can be wound in a single direction so that the interstices are helical. More frequently, the structural strands are wound as two sets of helices running in opposite directions, to form a latticework in which the interstices are rhombic. The oppositely directed helices can be interbraided, or can overlie one another, being interbraided only with the textile strands. The interbraided structure can incorporate further strands, for example of radiopaque material. The structure can incorporate one or more elastomeric strands running axially of the structure and fused to the structure along at least part of its axial length, thus to enhance radial self-expansion.
The process can be augmented with several steps that enhance the utility of the prosthesis, such as coating the structural strands, the textile strands, or both. A heat setting step may be performed after braiding, when the textile strands are formed of a yarn amenable to heat setting. An adhesive can be applied to the ends of the integrated structure after braiding, to reduce or prevent unraveling.
Another aspect of the present invention is a prosthesis. The prosthesis includes an integrated structure including an interbraiding of a plurality of structural strands and a plurality of compliant textile strands. The structural strands are formed of a structural material having a tendency to assume a nominal shape when in a relaxed state. The structural strands further have respective selected nominal strand shapes imparted by at least one of: (i) a selective plastic deformation from an original nominal strand shape to the selected nominal strand shape; and (ii) a selective thermal setting including a heating of the structural strand to a temperature greater than a melting temperature of the textile strands while the structural strand is maintained in the selected nominal strand shape.
The structural strands have selected orientations within the integrated structure, to impart a predetermined nominal shape to the integrated structure. In a preferred prosthesis, the structural strands cooperate to form a latticework, and the textile strands cooperate to form a textile sheeting supported by the latticework and occupying interstices between adjacent structural strands of the latticework. Thus, the structural strength and resiliency of a self-expanding stent and the low permeability of a graft are combined in a single prosthesis.
The structural strands preferably are monofilaments of metal, e.g. a stainless steel, an alloy including cobalt or an alloy including titanium. Alternatively the monofilaments are polymeric, constructed of materials including PET, polypropylene, PEEK, HDPE, polysulfone, acetyl, PTFE, FEP, polycarbonate urethane, and polyurethane. In either event the preferred textile strands are multifilament polymeric yarns. Suitable materials for the multifilament yarns include PET, polypropylene, polyurethane, polycarbonate urethane, HDPE (high density polyethylene), polyethylene, silicone, PTFE, ePTFE and polyolefin.
Thus in accordance with the present invention, an interbraided structure incorporating structural and textile strands is manufactured according to a process that enables a controlled shaping of the structural strands without adversely affecting the textile strands. The result is an intraluminal device with the favorable qualities of an open weave stent and of a tightly woven graft. The structural strands are shaped either thermally or by plastic deformation, before they are brought together with the textile strands for interbraiding. The interbraiding step involves all strands simultaneously, interweaving a compliant textile sheeting among the structural strands as the structural strands are formed into a latticework that defines the shape of the prosthesis. As a result, the textile sheeting is supported by the latticework and tends to conform to the shape of the latticework. The textile sheeting exhibits low permeability and high compliance, occupying and more preferably filling the voids between adjacent structural strands to prevent leakage of blood or other fluids, yet readily conforming to the shapes of the voids, as these shapes change responsive to radial contractions and expansions of the structure.